September Climate Leader: Gabe Dayley
Gabe Dayley serves as Climate Protection Program Manager for Albemarle County, Virginia. He is responsible for coordinating implementation of the County’s Climate Action Plan. This includes facilitating collaboration across local government, public schools, and community stakeholders to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while promoting local health, well-being, and prosperity. Gabe received a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Pomona College and a master’s degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University. His graduate work focused on the application of conflict transformation to tackling environmental challenges.
How did you get involved and passionate about the environment?
From an early age, my parents instilled in me a sense of wonder about the natural world. My family was fortunate to have access to nearby nature and wilderness when I was young. Getting to experience some of this country’s most magnificent landscapes motivated me to help promote a healthy environment for everyone—people, animals, plants, and other life. After majoring in international relations in college, I went to graduate school to study conflict resolution and peacebuilding. During a class called Environmental Peacebuilding in my master’s program, however, I had an “Aha!” moment, realizing that I could apply my training in conflict transformation to tackling the climate crisis. That’s what led me here.
Tell us what exciting work the County is doing to advance climate solutions?
A lot! Our transportation planners and engineers are working to increase bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and to improve the quality of bus stops, which will help take cars off the roads. In fact, construction will commence shortly on three significant sidewalk projects on Avon Street, Rio Road, and Route 250 in Crozet. The County has also supported organizations like the Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) and Albemarle Housing Improvement Program (AHIP) to make energy efficiency improvements in lower income households that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve quality of life, and reduce homeowner costs. Additionally, several of my colleagues are working to increase the health of our local watershed and ecosystems through restoring streams and improving stream buffers, conserving forests, and promoting native plants, all of which have multiple co-benefits, including sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the County is increasingly embedding energy efficiency upgrades into its own buildings, such as a new geothermal system at Crozet Elementary School, which will reduce emissions and save money over time.
Last but not least, I’m especially excited by Albemarle County’s emphasis on serving the community in ways that are equitable, helping all community members to experience optimal well-being. This emphasis is crucial for climate action; as the County’s Climate Action Plan acknowledges, “the effects of climate change will not impact all community members in the same way or to the same degree.” What’s exciting to me about the County’s focus on equity in climate action is the opportunity to be intentional about benefiting everyone.
What are you hopeful about right now?
I’m hopeful about the growing recognition among policymakers, urban planners, architects, farmers, environmental activists, and many others that holistic approaches to tackling the climate crisis yield the best results for everyone. For example, Albemarle County planners and other staff recognize that what makes a community livable—greenery, walkable neighborhoods, human scaled buildings—is also good for the planet. These kinds of priorities—and the intention for all residents to benefit from them—are emphasized throughout the County’s 2015 Comprehensive Plan, and I’m guessing we’ll see more in the upcoming Comprehensive Plan update. For another example, farmers and scientists are increasingly recognizing that agricultural best management practices can enhance soil health and sequester carbon, while also increasing farmers’ profits. What’s especially exciting to me about these kinds of holistic approaches is that they promote people’s quality of life, local environmental health, good jobs, and climate action as a package, rather than pitting these against each other.
What is one thing that you think is holding the state or local business community back from greater progress on implementing climate solutions?
I think the biggest challenge is the sheer momentum of decisions about energy and infrastructure—many of which were made long ago—that have accumulated incrementally over the years. The path of least resistance for policymakers is often to move further in the direction of that momentum, and changing course altogether requires more effort and outside-the-box thinking. Let’s take roads, for example. Decisions in the early- and mid-twentieth century cemented the automobile as the dominant mode of transportation in the United States. As traffic congestion worsened, the convenient response has been to add more lanes. We now know, however, that widening roads tends to increase traffic—and in turn, greenhouse gas emissions—by facilitating more vehicle travel; it becomes a vicious cycle. People and businesses increasingly rely on that predominant infrastructure for transportation, supply chains, and distribution, so it becomes more difficult to shift course.
Reduced street traffic during the early Covid shutdowns enabled some communities to re-envision use of public streets. Although New York City is vastly different than Albemarle County, this article about street use in Manhattan provides great visual examples of how communities with urban areas might redesign public space, with some lessons that could be transferred to the County’s urban areas.
What is a climate action personally or professionally that you are proud of?
In 2020, I helped write Albemarle County’s Climate Action Plan, which the Board of Supervisors adopted in October 2020, and which is guiding our current work to reduce the County’s contribution to global climate change. To be clear, I moved to the Charlottesville-Albemarle area after most of the work to craft the Climate Action Plan’s strategies and actions had been complete. So my contribution really stands on the shoulders of the hard work and creativity of many other people in the community and local government. Nevertheless, I’m proud of the contribution I made to crafting the document, in which we articulate a vision that reflects multiple community values and priorities, such as equity, clean air and water, healthy people and natural resources, and a vibrant local economy.
This is challenging work. What is your favorite way to recharge and rejuvenate?
This is an important question, whether we work on climate action in a professional capacity or as engaged citizens. Addressing the climate crisis is not just challenging from a technical or policy perspective; it is also challenging emotionally, and research has shown numerous adverse mental health impacts in the face of this crisis. While I certainly enjoy being active in nature, the most important way that I recharge is by acknowledging my own emotional reaction to setbacks or bad news—whether it be sadness, frustration, or despair. When I feel grief after reading about species extinction or overwhelm in the face of the latest IPCC assessment, I take a few minutes to breathe and just be with the feeling, without self-judgment. That allows the emotional energy to pass, and I can return to the work with greater focus. If I don’t do that—if I just “push through”—I usually find myself less focused and less effective.
Historically, there has been an often unspoken assumption that to be effective in this work, you have to turn off your emotions. That’s like squeezing a balloon. If we repress how we feel in response to a difficult situation, the feeling will show up in some other way—maybe we burn out, or tune out through a Netflix binge, or lose our cool in an important meeting. Nowadays, people are increasingly aware that acknowledging a feeling for a few minutes—a middle way between repressing and acting out—allows for healthy emotional processing. To be successful, we need folks to bring all of their intelligence to this work—emotional and intellectual.